Lexington, OH (Sunday, July 3, 2022) – Rookie David Malukas (#18 HMD Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports) picked up his best finish of his NTT INDYCAR SERIES career on Sunday with a ninth-place finish at the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Started: 8th
Finished: 9th
- Malukas, who led the morning warmup earlier in the day fell to ninth in the opening laps from his eighth place on the starting grid.
- The rookie then moved up to seventh on a Lap 13 restart and ran in that position until his first pit stop on Lap 26.
- He was running 11th when a full course caution came out on Lap 31 but he would fall back to 13th 10 laps later when the action returned to green.
- Following a Lap 58 restart, gradually made his way back into the Top 10, before taking over ninth place on Lap 64.
- Today’s ninth place finish was Malukas’ best finish of the season after finishing 11th twice earlier this year at Detroit and Texas Motor Speedway.
David Malukas, #18 Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports Honda
“It’s our first top 10 finish. I’m really happy with a ninth place after starting eighth. The yellow flags were the worst thing that could have happened to us but we still managed to get a P9 out of it. We had some really good racing with veterans. I went inside and outside of Pagenaud and Harvey and then was behind Castroneves. It was cool to see what they were doing and learn from following them as well. Overall, I’m really happy with our race.”